The Wild Unknown Tarot - VII Cups

Sulis

At the centre of the image is an upward facing conical structure.. It's not completely round, it has sides or faces and quite a lot of them so that the structure is almost round. At the top of the cone stands a cup or wine glass. It is balanced very precariously on the very tip of the cone and it is white.
Above the cone and surrounding it in an inverted 'V' shape are 6 more wine goblets, they are also white but they are upside down.

The eye is automatically drawn to the glass balanced on top of the cone.

7s to me are about challenges that we can over-come. 7 is a magical number and some of it's themes are going deeper, looking within, challenging yourself and initiation.
The 7 of Water or Cups is a challenge on the emotional level that needs you to look within to discover just what it is you really feel about something and so just what it is that you really want.
I think this image conveys that meaning really well.
It's saying examine your feelings and focus on the thing that you really feel (the cup in the middle).
The other cups are empty and upside down so they're not the ones to choose to help you with your challenge but the central cup, which is also empty but is the right way up so waiting to be filled is the one to concentrate on.
 

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Linfang

This was the first card I drew in my first reading with TWU.

It is quite interesting that Sulis sees the one cup standing on top of a cone like structure. For me, when I studied it, it seemed like something like a channel or a dried river bed with the cup at the end. The card has a very three-dimensional feeling to it, there are two ways to see to it: a cone coming "out" of the card, or a channel, burying "into" the card. I think this is the perfect representation of the illusion represented by the seven of cups.

I totally agree with you for the one cup in the centre, being the right one. The river bed invites me to channel my thoughts, to fill it with my dreams and then put them into action.
 

Sulis

Linfang said:
The card has a very three-dimensional feeling to it, there are two ways to see to it: a cone coming "out" of the card, or a channel, burying "into" the card. I think this is the perfect representation of the illusion represented by the seven of cups.

Ooh I really like that - the whole image is like an optical illusion and now that you've pointed it out, I can completely see a channel rather than a cone..
 

Pixna

This card is really blowing my mind. At first, I saw the "channel," which to me looked like a grave that had been dug. But when the optical illusion was mentioned, I saw the cone, or a pyramid!

As a grave, I see the upright cup as ready to jump in, fall over into the grave, or be pushed in (maybe by one of the upside down cups).

But if this is a channel, maybe the lone upright cup is getting ready to take the leap into it. Or if it is a cone, maybe the lone upright cup has achieved the pinnacle and is victorious, even if its position is precarious and it could topple over at any moment.

Is the upright cup ready to leap into the abyss, or has it accomplished something miraculous? What do the other six cups represent, and what are they doing (or not doing)?

Filling the channel with thoughts or channeling dreams is a really interesting interpretation, one I hadn't considered (but will now!).

What do the four dark corners represent?

This card is surprisingly rich -- something else I hadn't noticed about it at first.

I'd love to hear more insights about it!
 

Water Lady

It will be interesting to see as I start using the deck if the card continues to change appearance from pyramid to channel as it is doing now
 

Erizae

Suddenly realised something as I was looking at this card!

Presuming that the structure is a channel, notice that there is no water at all in the picture. Not a drop. As water represents emotions, it could mean that the reader/client/person's emotions may be misdirected.

Just something I noticed while up past midnight.
 

Sulis

Suddenly realised something as I was looking at this card!

Presuming that the structure is a channel, notice that there is no water at all in the picture. Not a drop. As water represents emotions, it could mean that the reader/client/person's emotions may be misdirected.

Just something I noticed while up past midnight.
That's a very good point.. I'd noticed that the cups seem empty but I couldn't figure out what that could mean.
I really like that about being misdirected :)
I love the way these cards allow for so many different interpretations..
 

Erizae

Second edition?

Just curious, but has anyone obtained the second edition of this card? It looks significantly different and I think it'd allow for more ways to interpret! :)
 

wloveandsqualor

please delete
 

sevenfires

I have the second edition of the deck, so the card looks different. At the top is a yellow waning crescent moon hanging above a jagged mountain line (or could it be clouds?). The top of the mountain/cloud is in blue watercolor, but the rest is plain white. At the bottom of the card is a yellow sun with long black lines surrounding it. In the middle are six cups: three to the right, three to the left, and one in the center (which is upside down).

The sun and the moon appearing at the same time together suggests that this is not reality. As they are at opposite ends of the card, it gives the feeling that the card could be turned upside down, especially as the middle cup is upside down. It creates a topsy-turvy effect, as if the card is ungrounded, unstable. Which way is up, which way is down, what is reality and what is fantasy? It evokes confusion -- confusion between reality and fantasy, or confusion over choices represented by the cups.

It would make more sense if the background of the cups is a cloud rather than a mountain, as that would be in line with the RWS (the whole "head in the clouds, building castles in the sky, living in fantasies/illusions, etc."). I'm not quite sure what the mountain could represent, other than perhaps isolation in your fantasies/choices.

Each of the cups in the RWS contain images representative of dreams, illusions, thoughts, choices, etc.; some are positive while others negative. The overturned cup in the middle could represent the negative aspect.
I usually think of a mountain as representing an obstacle or challenge to overcome.


I only have the second edition. Something I noticed when I drew this card in a reading is that the sun is below the cups and its rays don't stretch that far, so it can't illuminate what's inside the cups. If the cups represent options or choices, then we don't have the illumination or insight to know what's truly a good choice and what isn't, at least not from this current perspective.